I was asked recently by an EHR vendor about the disconnect between the number of 2011 Certified EHR and the number of 2014 Certified EHR. I haven’t looked through the ONC-CHPL site recently, but you can easily run the number of certified EHR vendors there. Of course, there’s a major difference in the number of 2011 certified EHR versus 2014 certified EHR. However, I don’t think it’s for the reason most people give.

Every EHR vendor that gets 2014 Certified likes to proclaim that they’re one of the few EHR vendors that was “able” to get 2014 Certified. They like to point to the vast number of EHR that haven’t bridged from being 2011 Certified to being 2014 Certified as a sign that their company is special because they were able to complete the “more advanced” certification. While no one would argue that the 2014 Certification takes a lot more work, I think it’s misleading for EHR companies to proclaim themselves victor because they’re “one of the few” EHR vendors to be 2014 Certified.

First of all, there are over 1000 2014 Certified EHR products on ONC-CPHL as of today and hundreds of them (223 to be exact – 29 inpatient and 194 ambulatory) are even certified as complete EHR. Plus, I’ve heard from EHR vendors and certifying bodies that there’s often a delay in ONC putting the certified EHR up on ONC-CPHL. So, how many more are 2014 Certified that aren’t on the list…yet.

Another issue with this number is that there is still time for EHR vendors to finish their 2014 EHR certification. Yes, we’re getting close, but no doubt we’ll see a wave of last minute EHR certifications from EHR vendors. It’s kind of like many of you reading this that are sitting on your taxes and we’ll have a rush of tax filings in the next few days. It’s not a perfect comparison since EHR certification is more complex and there are a limited number of EHR Certification slots from the ONC-ATCB’s, but be sure there are some waiting until the last minute.

It’s also worth considering that I saw one report that talked about the hundreds (or it might have been thousands) of 2011 Certified EHR that never actually had any doctors attest using their software. If none of your users actually attested using your EHR software, then would it make any business sense to go after the 2014 EHR certification? We can be sure those will drop out, but I expect that a large majority of these aren’t really “EHR” software in the true sense. They’re likely modularly certified and add-ons to EHR software.

To date, I only know of one EHR software that’s comes out and shunned 2014 Certified EHR status. I’m sure we’ll see more than just this one before the deadline, but my guess is that 90% of the market (ie. actual EHR users) already have 2014 Certified EHR software available to them and 99% of the market will have 2014 certified EHR available if they want by the deadline.

I don’t think 2014 EHR certification is going to be a differentiating factor for any of the major EHR players. All the major players realize that being 2014 Certified is essential to their livelihood and a cost of doing business.

Of course, the same can’t be said for doctors. There are plenty of ways for doctors to stay in business while shunning 2014 Certified EHR software and meaningful use stage 2. I’m still really interested to see how that plays out.

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 5000 articles with John having written over 2000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 9.3 million times. John also recently launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: @techguy and @ehrandhit and Google Plus. Healthcare Scene can be found on Google+ as well.